(Chen Guangcheng) Relatives of Dissident Said to Face Harassment

Source: New York Times

Family members and lawyers representing Chen Guangcheng are facing increased harassment despite an international deal brokered to help Mr. Chen, a legal activist who escaped house arrest last month and sought refuge in the American Embassy here.

According to lawyers and activists, the police in Mr. Chen’s hometown have put several of his family members under various forms of detention as part of an investigation into Mr. Chen’s nephew, who is accused of assaulting police officers. One of the lawyers set to defend the nephew is said to have been detained in a Beijing jail, and two others have been warned off the case.

Nicholas Bequelin, in Human Rights Watch’s Hong Kong office, said these reports showed that officials in Mr. Chen’s hometown, Dongshigu, continue to exercise arbitrary power. Although the nephew’s actions — family members and the police agree that he brandished a kitchen cleaver at officers — should be investigated, the family is concerned that local officials will not give him a fair hearing.

“The U.S. needs to keep raising these cases very strongly,” Mr. Bequelin said. “This is about justice in China; it’s larger than just Chen Guangcheng.”

The nephew of the Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng has been charged with voluntary manslaughter, amid growing concerns about reprisals and intimidation of lawyers.

The arrest comes as a senior lawyer defending Chen described to the Guardian how he lost his hearing in a beating by a senior state security official after he tried to visit his client in hospital last week.

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The activist's nephew Chen Kegui faces a sentence ranging from 10 years in prison to the death penalty after he brandished a meat cleaver at intruders who burst into his home in Linyi, Shandong province, during the search for his uncle.